A big warning sign for Mitt Romney (DeMint not in his Corner).

POLITICO ^ | 1/28/2011 | Jonathan Martin

[broken_arrow1]

An array of Republican heavyweights who backed Mitt Romney’s 2008 presidential bid are not yet committed to - and in some cases, downright skeptical of - the former Massachusetts governor’s all-but-certain 2012 campaign.

In each of the traditional early states, top Romney supporters from the last campaign tell POLITICO that they’re hesitant to get behind the nearest thing the GOP has to a frontrunner. His difficulties are particularly acute in Iowa and South Carolina, where his former enthusiasts say they have not heard from him, believe he may be intent on downplaying the states in his second White House run and are openly flirting with his potential rivals.

But those two states – where Romney had difficulties with their socially conservative electorate in 2008 – aren’t the only ones where the former governor is losing support.

Former Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), the top elected official in the Granite State whose endorsement of Romney in 2008 was seen as a pivotal moment, said in an interview that he’s firmly undecided about who he’ll back in next year’s primary.

“I’m listening to all the candidates and have not made any decision,” Gregg told POLITICO. “It’s one of the more open fields I’ve seen over the years. There is no presumptive favorite at this time the way there was with McCain, Bush, Dole and Bush I.”

Asked specifically what Romney needed to do to earn his support again, Gregg, who was a national co-chair of the Bay Stater’s bid in 2008, said flatly: “I haven’t made any decision.”

The list of past Romney supporters now on the fence or on the other side includes high-profile figures like Gregg,Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, as well as lesser-known but influential behind-the-scenes players like Iowa power broker Doug Gross...

[ryderann]

I wonder if Romney will write his own “Dreams of My Father”. A lot of us Freepers were around when Mitt’s dad ran for president.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

I still say that the field for the Republican nomination should be self-vetting. They should each do an one-on-one Internet debate with each of the others . . . then just read the tea leaves and decide if they are able to seriously contend in that field.

Show the internet debates to some focus groups of Republican voters, and you should have a pretty good idea of what will sell and what won't. If you can show your debates to a Republican focus group, and then actually raise campaign donations from that group, then you know you are in the hunt. If not, you're just fooling yourself.

[speciallybland]

....is NOT even in the picture.

Of an online poll? Isn't that rather meaningless?

[Diogenesis]

The poll was of Republicans and not Democrats
like the other polls.

ROMNEY is hated among Republicans and conservatives.

And they are barely aware of how his Team Romney
has thrown election after election to the DNC.

[Diogenesis]

MORE MYTHS from MYTH ROMNEY

"Mitt Romney Lies About Father ‘Marching With Martin Luther King, Jr.’"
"Mitt Romney has been caught in yet another lie.
Only yesterday Romney’s claim of not supporting Planned Parenthood abortion mills was abruptly smashed by a photograph surfacing of him at one of their fundraisers in 1994.
Today, it’s Romney’s claim that his father “marched with” famed civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.
During his “I’m a Mormon but it doesn’t matter” speech, Mitt Romney claimed he saw his father,
George Romney, marching with MLK during a 1968 civil rights march through Grosse Pointe, Michigan.
It was a stirring account of the efforts of his father to show that the Romney family have always reached across ecumenical lines.
Only one little problem… it never happened."

---

"Mitt Romney went a step further in a 1978 interview with the Boston Herald.
Talking about the Mormon Church and racial discrimination, he said:
"My father and I marched with Martin Luther King Jr. through the streets of Detroit."
"Yesterday (12/20/07), Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom acknowledged that was not true.
"Mitt Romney did not march with Martin Luther King,"
he said in an e-mail statement to the Globe.

---

Against Myth Romney is 1:

"On Sunday, June 23, 1963, 125,000 people marched down Detroit's Woodward Avenue
to the Civic Center, in what was described at the time as the largest civil-rights demonstration in the nation's history.
According to the next day's account in the Holland Evening Sentinel,
the crowd at the Center "lustily booed," when representatives of Governor George W. Romney
read a proclamation declaring "Freedom March Day in Michigan." But Martin Luther King Jr. didn't fault Romney for his absence,
which the governor ascribed to his policy against public appearances on the Sabbath.
"At a news conference following the march . .
[King] refused to criticize Romney for not attending the demonstration," the Sentinel reported."

Against Myth Romney is 2:

Susan Englander, assistant editor of the Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University, who is editing the King papers from that era,
says Myth Romney was untruthful, when she told the Globe yesterday:
"I researched this question, and indeed it is untrue that George Romney marched with [Dr.] King."

Against Myth Romney is 3:

"King never marched in Grosse Pointe, according to the Grosse Pointe Historical Society,
and had not appeared in the town at all at the time the Broder book was published.
“I’m quite certain of that,” says Suzy Berschback, curator of the Grosse Pointe Historical Society"

---

Of course, you RomneyBOTs continued to attack these educated women
who have only spoken the Truth about Myth Romney and venal, odious deeds.

[Jabba the Nutt]

This article is from Politico, which I would think would like to see Romney get the nomination as a candidate that Obama could beat. Mitt is Country Club Republican, which a majority of Republicans even despise. The Dems really, really can't stand them.

But the real question for Mitt is "Where have you been the past 2 (or 3) years?"

Mitt, your claim on the Presidency rests on your economic acumen. Where were you opposing TARP? Where were you opposing 'Cap & Trade'? Where were you opposing ObamaCare even just on economic grounds? Where were you on the GM takeover and closure of the car dealers and screwing over of the bondholders? Where were you when the Tea Parties started? Where were you, when the Tea Party Americans were slimed? Where were you with all the lies told by the Obama Administration?

Mitt, you were nowhere. And that's where you're going to stay. Why don't you start another company and get some economic activity and job growth going? That's your expertise. Stop proving the Peter Principle.

[BfloGuy]

We spent the better part of two years trying to get people into office who would cut spending and regulation. It would make no sense now to turn around and nominate a man whose first instinct, when presented with an issue, is to develop a massive government program to address it.

The big government disease was W's downfall, too. I deeply respect Mr. Bush, but we must get away from that kind of thinking.

[The Comedian]

Romney still has Tokyo Rove and Bill O'Reilly on his side.

Outstanding. Plastic endorsements from inflatable Republicans for the paper mache MA special effect.

But the real test will be to see if McCain endorses him... /s

Today is a good day to die.
I didn't say for whom.

[Gargantua]

"...hesitant to get behind the nearest thing the GOP has to a frontrunner."

Mittens may be alot of things, but "the nearest thing the GOP has to a frontrunner" ain't one of 'em. That would be Sarah Palin, and even then only until she announces, at which point she will be the "GOP frontrunner."

What a dillweed this author is. I wish I could be that bad and still keep my job. Not.

;-\

[Gargantua]

"Plastic endorsements from inflatable Republicans for the paper mache MA special effect."

Now that's just downright cynical.

8^D

Question for you: On a medium-to-long-range, large caliber hit (solid cover, no need for a quick exit), do you prefer a left ventrical or an aorta tap? I say LV.

;^\

[Allegra]

Could GOP support for Romney's ascendency to 2012 throne be crumbling?

Oh, how I hope so!

[Will88]

I don’t remember Rush supporting Romney at all. I do, however, remember who Rush did not support and that had always been McCain.

Rush did support Romney when it came down to Romney and McCain. Mark Levin did also, as did Tom Tancredo and I'm fairly sure Sheriff Joe and others.

[Tennessee Nana]

Think back to 2008; there were no solid conservatives running as first-tier candidates.

What does that mean ???

For many people Romney was as close as you were going to get.

Congressman Duncan Hunter was not Chipped Beef...

[SumProVita]

The MAJORITY of Americans are not in his corner either.

[Clyde5445]

You are correct, Sir.

You don’t go from fourth in the primaries to the Governors Mansion without serious rocket fuel.

In this case, the rocket fuel was Gov. Sarah Palin.

[USS Alaska]

Even Rush Limbaugh got behind Romney just before the voting started.

I don't recall Rush backing romney as he usually stays out of the primaries.

He did back hitlery in "Operation Chaos" and I switched my registration to demonRAT to vote in the demonRAT primary.

I'll need to switch back so that I can vote in the pubbie primary in 2012.

[Diogenesis]

NO one wanted ROmney-the-Spoiler
except his jackal RomneyBOTs, techno.

-— you know who.

[Diogenesis]

Nope. Romney, the spoiler and poor sport,
was only there to put Obama in
with the aid of his Legion of Jackal RomneyBOTs.

Evil bastards, are they not?

In 2008, the McCain/Palin ticket was up ++4 to 10 pts. in some polls, days prior to the election.
So rather than helping the GOP, Romney once again
had his backstabbing TeamROMNEY
attack Gov. Palin to throw Election2008 to the DNC.

---

Late in October, The American Spectator's The Prowler revealed:
"Former Mitt Romney presidential campaign staffers…
have been involved in spreading anti-Palin spin to reporters, seeking to diminish her standing after the election.
'Sarah Palin is a lightweight, she won't be the first, not even the third, person people will think of when it comes to 2012,'
says one former Romney aide…
'The only serious candidate ready to challenge to lead the Republican Party is Mitt Romney.
"Some former Romney aides were behind the recent leaks to media, including CNN, that Governor Sarah Palin was a 'diva' and was going off message intentionally."

---

"Peeking Out From the McCain Wreckage: Mitt Romney"

"Someone's got to say it: IS MITT ROMNEY RESPONSIBLE FOR OBAMA'S VICTORY?"

"Vanity: Team Romney Sabotaged Palin and Continuing to Do So?"

"Romney Supporters Trashing Palin"

"Romney advisors sniping at Palin?"

---

"Despite outspending his rivals by huge margins throughout the primaries,
(Mitt Romney, Carpetbagger UT,CA,MA,NH,Mexico) lost Iowa, South Carolina, Florida and California.
The only primaries he won were in Michigan, where Dad was governor; LDS states;
and a few states on Super Tuesday in which his California-obsessed rivals
couldn't spare the cash to advertise.
Only John Connolly in 1968 had a worse cash-to-delegates ratio.
And John McCain rightly did not like Romney's tactics during the primaries.
(W)hen (Romney's early leads) started slipping away, he resorted to unfair,
distorted, scorched-earth negative ads, betting that his opponents couldn't
afford to spend enough for the truth to catch up to his charges."
[Romney: A Mistake for McCain, 7/23/2008, Dick Morris]

[Fiji Hill]

Rush Limbaugh supported Mitt Romney too back in 2008.

I thought that he supported Hillary Clinton.

[screaminsunshine]

I get a grin when I see Sarah. But I still do not know what she would do. Would she eliminate big gov agencies? Would she kibosh PC BS?